21/08/2026
💡 What can light, quantum physics and a lifetime of curiosity reveal about our world? For Professor Halina Rubinsztein-Dunlop AO, this question has driven a remarkable career at the forefront of physics. "I wanted to find answers to 'how' and 'why', and I believed that physics would help me do that."
Now a Professor of Quantum Physics at The University of Queensland ARC Centre of Excellence in Quantum Biotechnology, Halina leads research exploring optics, photonics and quantum physics, with applications spanning biology, medicine and emerging quantum technologies.
As an experimental physicist, she works with cutting-edge technologies to better understand how the quantum world behaves, while also teaching and supervising the next generation of researchers.
Over the course of her career, Halina and her team have achieved significant breakthroughs, including being the first to experimentally demonstrate the transfer of angular momentum of light to matter on the microscale, helping unlock new possibilities in optical manipulation technologies. She is also proud of her pioneering work investigating quantum tunnelling using Bose-Einstein condensates. Halina was the first female physics professor in Australia.
Ask Halina what she's most proud of, and her answer isn't a scientific discovery. It's her students. "The most rewarding part of my work is working with the upcoming generation of researchers. Seeing their development while pursuing their PhDs is absolutely fascinating."
Today, many of her former PhD students and postdoctoral researchers lead their own laboratories, hold professorial positions around the world, and drive innovation across academia and industry.
For Halina, science is ultimately about curiosity, discovery and people, asking big questions today while empowering the next generation to answer even bigger ones tomorrow.
